Mobile communication devices are in use throughout everyday life. One common aspect of the design and development of mobile communication devices is that there is an ongoing movement to reduce the size of devices and to provide increased functionality even though the size is being reduced.
Conventional attempts to provide additional functionality in a smaller package have resulted in mobile communication devices that are described as a “flip phone” in which a hinge is provided and the mobile communication device opens in a clam shell fashion to reveal additional functions on both parts of the flipped device. Another conventional method to add functionality has been the use of a slider function in which the face or a portion of the mobile communication device is slid along a base of the mobile communication device to reveal, for example, a keyboard or the like. More recently, some conventional devices have the capability of sliding the face or first portion in either of two directions to provide additional access to certain functionality. For example, sliding the cover in one direction may reveal a keyboard while in another direction may reveal telephone keys.
These existing solutions present certain problems with regard to the user accessing functions. For example, with the flip phone concept, the user must entirely open the phone to access the functions. Further, with the slider phone concept, the user must open the phone fully to access the functionality and in the situation of two directional sliding, the user may not be able to access both levels of functionality at the same time.
As such there is a need for an improved user input system and method for mobile communication devices.